Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Sunrise Smoothie

A little caffeine from green tea makes this the perfect smoothie to start your day, hence the recipe's name.

Ingredients:

4 kiwifruit (about 12 ounces)

2 medium-sized ripe bananas

4 fruit-flavored green tea bags*

1 and 1/2 cups light soy milk

1 tablespoon agave nectar

1. Peel and cube the kiwifruit and cut the bananas into 1-inch pieces. Place the kiwifruit and banana in a large zip-top plastic bag and seal; freeze for 30 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, place the tea bags in a medium bowl. Bring the soy milk to a boil, and pour over the tea bags; steep for 3 minutes.

Well now, here's a nice message to find on your vegan tea:

Note: I recommend bringing the soy milk to a boil over medium to medium-high heat, and stirring frequently, to prevent it from scorching on the bottom of the pan.

3. Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve over a bowl, and discard the tea bags. Stir in the agave and let cool.

4. In a blender, combine the kiwifruit, bananas, and tea mixture. Process until smooth.

An extra slice of kiwifruit makes a lovely garnish.

*Any fruit-flavored green tea will work, or you can try making this smoothie several times with different flavors and seeing which you like best.
This morning, I used the pomegranate green tea from Yogi Tea.

Nutrition Info:
5 servings (1/2 cup), Calories 125

Tasting Notes:
For all the effort I took to steep the tea in the soy milk, I couldn't really taste the fruit flavors, since the kiwi and banana stole the show - though of course that's not a bad thing. If you want a simpler smoothie, consider blending the fruit with vanilla non-dairy milk and agave and leave it at that. Of course, even without the taste, you'll still get antioxidants and caffeine from the green tea method, so perhaps it's worth it after all. Rating:
3.5

Update:
If you're not a kiwifruit fan, other fruits work just as well here. I tried a strawberry version and liked it even better. The strawberries competed less with the green tea flavor, so the tea contributed more than just an antioxidant boost. This difference may also be because I used a different fruit-flavored green tea variety, the tropical green tea from Mighty Leaf:

Simply substitute 12 ounces halved strawberries for the kiwifruit above, but keep the rest of the recipe the same.

Because strawberries and kiwifruit by weight are different volumes, note that your serving sizes will change.